Taobao I believe.
I think place like ShowZ, Babao will eventually give up and set the same price as NA vendors

 

Seems like going with a smaller seller is the way to go with XTB now. Either Taobao if you can or some trustworthy e-bayer or local Facebook seller under the radar seems to get as low as $200 trailer and $60 accessories. Maybe that’s what ShowZ and Baba will have it for but I’d bet they’ll end up right at North American prices.

 

Well, yeah. I heard a 4th-party got ahold of the design file for the tires, so they're giving us the first one free. Tires 2 and 3 will be in packs for $5 each and the last tire will be $40. But then you have to buy the deluxe add-on to get all the pins needed to hold on the tires, but it will come with a bonus alternate face plate for Dead End. We are so lucky.

 

Did they put a lot of thought and love into designing the trailer? Sure, definitely, I don't think anyone is going to argue that point. Enough that I think it earns that $230 + $75 point for everything altogether? Definitely not. Its not expensive enough for me personally that I'm not going to not get it, but I'm definitely getting overcharged for what I think its worth. The fact that the price garnered this much controversy on the boards means its too much. if it was priced correctly, people would've been all, "that's fair" and paid it and we wouldn't have people arguing and complaining for a dozen pages.

Besides, I don't think anyone ever asked for a base mode. Like if XTB opened up a few panels and turned the limbs a certain way and were all, "Look, base mode!" people would've been "Okay, that's neat, but its not something I'd ever use." But purposely designing a base mode was kinda a waste, particularly if they were going to use that as justification for the higher price point. So of course people were going to be annoyed that they're getting charged for a "cool feature" they never wanted.

 

Love....they put love........Yeah I suppose, when you think something is going to generate you tons of $$ you gotta love it.

 

Because DX9 also sold a trailer that turns into a Menasor frame, and theirs came with Motormaster (a separate $130 XTB purchase) and still managed to cost around $50 less? And yeah, XTB's excuse seems to be "well, ours has a base mode." I won't presume to speak for everyone, but I think most of us would have been happy to ditch the base mode and shave $50-$80 off the price. Especially when all those guns you see on the base mode pics are a separate $75 purchase now.

 

Done with love eh? Just like this egg with paint scratches and electronics problem?

 

Pre-ordered the accessory set from BBTS...albeit reluctantly. I think I would regret not getting those fake car shells as the combiner looks a bit unfinished without it. I'll use the additional faces, meg's controller, and the effect pieces for sure. I totally get ppl not justifying the accessory pack, XT really should have included the fake add on parts with the trailor as default.

 

ShowZ didn't post any updates to the website yesterday. Normally they have their newstand page updated each day but there are also NewAge releases announced that they haven't posted yet. So I don't think we'll hear anything until Sunday night/Monday morning.

This is actually exactly what they did.



I think we can agree on a few fundamental things:

1. The accessory pack is not worth anywhere near $75 and should have been included in the base trailer package. At least it should have a bad-ass gun and/or sword. Not a bunch of hasbro effort peashooters. This is the biggest FU of the release.
2. It's not cool to have the escalating prices especially when it comes to the final piece of the set.
3. Base mode is bullshit and a marketing bullet point at best.
4. XTB sucks at communicating...if you are expecting American style communications.
5. I shouldn't have ordered all the G2 versions last week, especially since I already have the regs and youth versions.

 

Someone here should design a combiner shell, no trailer or base mode, and y'all could crowdfund it.

 

Βasemode my @ss....Even power baser has a better one.

 

It's called Fans Toys/DX9.

 

I get that and I do the same a lot of the time. It's when I consider the US price to be too high versus what you're getting that I will go to an overseas seller. The difference will sometimes be as much as 20% (though it's usually more like %10). For the $230 trailer, that would mean a price on the $185 to $200 range, which is still pretty high for what you get but at least it's a slightly easier pull to swallow. When it came to $60 Zeta figures or even the XTB limbbots, I had no problem buying them from US stores and paying the additional shipping costs because it still felt like a good deal for what I was getting. With a $230 trailer plus something like $15 to $20 for shipping, it does not. So yeah, it pisses me off that Chinese sellers are being forced to sell at US prices. Plus it's not fair to them: they're still at a disadvantage because it takes so much longer to get items from them but they normally offset this with a lower price. If they can't sell for lower, why buy from them at all? You're paying the same price to wait and extra two weeks (and quite a bit longer this year). So it's not even leveling the playing field - it's taking away their one advantage while TFSource et all keep their advantage.

 

Except the sales guy told you that those came stock.

 

I beg to differ on all of those being fundamentals. I’ll respond with my thoughts below:

1- Agreed
2- Mostly agreed. Although, it has been 2-3 years and costs do change, I think there’s room for some increase but the US $230 price is excessive. $150 from overseas is more reasonable even if it is on the high end for my preferences.
3- here’s where I differ: I like the base mode, it’s pretty close to how the G1 Motormaster toy transformed for its base mode, so it works for me. Admittedly without the accessory pack cannons, it’ll be pretty boring, but overall I think they did a good of it without compromising the bot mode.
4- Agreed
5- I personally have never liked the G2 colour schemes so I haven’t bothered with them. I do like the youth versions though and if I can ever get a set of youth car bots for a reasonable price, I’d be happy to have them to go along with my FT Roadking for an alt mode display.

 

Oh yeah, the complaints there would have been anyways, it's normal. The difference is that Xtb would have at least been honest with their customers instead of trying to deceive them.

 

Glad I went with Terry as well. That price should include shipping. I'm in!

 

Very nice of Terry. Good job.

 

For everybody who announces their 'boycott' of TFSource, it probably introduces 2 or 3 new customers to them.

 

For now...